James Bulger’s murderer Jon Venables received nearly £260,000 legal aid to help him fight a string of legal battles caused by his own criminal behaviour but the murdered toddler’s family got NOTHING to help their efforts to keep him in jail.

James’ dad Ralph Bulger was left furious that the man who killed his son got £259,585 to pay for civil claims, judicial reviews and applications for new identities, according to Mirror Online.

But he said his own legal aid bid was blocked when he tried to fund an appeal against a decision that Venables and his accomplice Robert Thompson were eligible for parole after they served eight years for James’ murder.

The true figure that Venables, recently jailed again for a collection of sick child abuse images found on his laptop, was allowed could be much higher as it does not include the costs of his original trial or most recent child sexual images charge.

Mr Bulger said: “It’s a disgrace to pay this to Venables from the public purse. He is a sexual ­predator and child killer who got all this money and yet I have ­consistently been denied legal aid over the years trying to keep him locked up and away from the public.

It is believed if any legal aid bill for that case plus the killer’s murder trial were taken into account it would take the final total past the £300,000 mark.

Ralph Bulger at his son James's grave (Image: William Griffiths)

A Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Justice revealed Venables first received almost £180,000 in state cash to challenge his 15-year sentence for murder set by then Home Secretary Michael Howard.

Read More

Venables and Thompson were both 10 when they murdered James, two. A petition calling for a public inquiry into the case has more than 211,00 ­signatures. James’ mum Denise Fergus said: “Thanks to everyone who signed.”